Captain Kidd’s pirate ship to become underwater museum

by Sean McLachlan on


The submerged wreck of Captain Kidd’s pirate ship will become a “Living Museum of the Sea” reports Science Daily.

The Quedagh Merchant was found a couple of years ago just off the coast of the Dominican Republic. It’s only 70 feet from the shore of Catalina Island and rests in ten feet of water, so it’s a perfect destination for scuba divers or even snorkelers.

Underwater signs will guide divers around the wreck, and like in above-ground museums, there’s a strict “don’t touch the artifacts” policy. Often when shipwrecks are found the discoverers keep the location secret to protect them from looting. Hopefully this bold step of allowing visitors to swim around such an important wreck will help inform the public without any harm being done. One can only hope!

Captain Kidd is one of the most famous and most controversial of pirates. For much of his career he was a privateer, a legal pirate with permission from the King of England to loot enemy ships and hunt down other pirates. Privateers were one of the ways the big empires of the day harassed one another.

Lots of stories of his evil nature have come down to us. He was supposed to have been brutal to his crew and was even reported to have buried his Bible, as is shown in this public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. He’s also supposed to have buried treasure all over the world. How much of this is true and how much is legend is still hotly debated by historians.

The Quedagh Merchant was an Armenian vessel carrying a rich treasure of gold, silver, and fine cloth that Kidd captured in 1698 off the coast of India. Although the ship was Armenian and was under the protection of the French Crown, it was captained by an Englishman. This got Kidd’s status changed from privateer to pirate and from then on he was wanted by the English authorities.

Kidd left the Quedagh Merchant in the Caribbean with a trusted crew as he sailed off on another ship to New York to clear his name, but his “trusted crew” looted the vessel and sunk it. His loss was posterity’s gain.

Kidd shouldn’t have gone to New York. He was lured to Boston by a supposed friend and then arrested and shipped to England to be put on trial for piracy. The judge found him guilty and sentenced him to hang. His body was left hanging over the River Thames in an iron cage called a gibbet as a warning to others. The museum will be dedicated on May 23, the 310th anniversary of Kidd’s execution.

[Image of Captain Kidd rotting in the gibbet courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

Big up Kingston – Pirates & Parrotfish in Port Royal

by Jeremy Kressmann on

It’s June 1692, and you’re a resident of Port Royal, a thriving settlement in the harbor of modern-day Kingston. As you gaze at the cerulean-blue harbor, your eyes linger on the silhouettes of several privateer ships. The English crown has given these ships free reign to prey upon enemy Spanish galleons loaded with gold and silver, and they’ve taken to the task with relish. In Port Royal, the privateers’ wealth and debauchery is visible everywhere. Drunken sailors stumble about, pockets bursting with pieces of eight, vessels of overflowing red wine spilling down the cobblestone. Meanwhile, ladies of the night slink from behind darkened doorways, beckoning you towards illicit pleasures.

Yet amid the usual debauchery, something feels amiss. The earth you stand upon suddenly feels unstable, vibrating with increasingly angry amplifications. Earthquake! Torrents of seawater froth with whitecaps. Shrieks of terror emanate from panicked residents. Without warning, a huge chunk of Port Royal begins to slip into the sea, swallowing a mass swarming humanity and buildings like an angry sea monster.

More than 300 years later and the ground beneath Port Royal is again calm. But much like the aftermath of that fateful disaster in 1692, it’s clear that the epicenter of Jamaica’s wealth and influence has shifted elsewhere. The fearsome buccaneers like Henry Morgan are no more. Instead, what’s been left behind is a sleepy fishing village just a few miles from Kingston proper, littered with the remains of crumbling pirate forts and some of the best seafood anywhere in the Caribbean. If you’re ready to investigate the real history of pirates in the Caribbean, click below for more.
Fort Charles + Giddy House
At one time Port Royal was home to several military installations. These forts not only guarded Kingston’s harbor from enemy attacks, they also provided safe haven for pirates preying on Spanish ships in the Caribbean. Following the 1692 earthquake, at least three of Port Royal’s forts simply disappeared into the sea.

Today, Fort Charles is Port Royal’s only remaining military fort and among the best preserved in the Caribbean. First built in 1655, the base has played host to some Britain’s most famous naval leaders, including Horatio Nelson. It’s also coincidentally the name of the fort in Pirates of the Caribbean. Coincidence? Visitors to the site can arrange tours of the grounds including some fearsome cannons and a small but well-organized museum complete with historic Port Royal artifacts. Better visit quick – at the time of our visit, authorities mentioned plans to turn the site into a legit tourist complex complete with peg-legs, parrots and eyepatches. Shiver me timbers?

Also worth an amusing five minutes of your time is the Giddy House (pictured above). Built in the 1880’s as an ammunition storehouse, the Giddy House was the victim of yet another earthquake in 1907, which left the structure intact but slanted at a rather odd angle. The slanted floors make for a fun-house style amusement and leaves many visitors “giddy” with laughter, hence its odd name.

Gloria’s Seafood
Just outside the gates of Fort Charles lies Gloria’s, yet another highly recommended Port Royal destination. After you’ve worked up an appetite learning about pirates, make a stop at this rustic seafood shop complete with al fresco seating and views of Kingston harbor. A plate of curried parrotfish with okra (right), a glass of Ting soda, and the sound of waves crashing along the shore makes for the perfect Jamaican lunch.

As you finish your meal, spend an hour or two exploring the neighborhood’s quiet and rustic charm, including the peeling facades of pastel colored buildings and clumps of tiny wooden fishing boats nestled on the shore. Port Royal today may no longer flow with stolen Spanish treasure, but its unassuming charms remain very much intact, waiting to be discovered.

Gadling was recently invited by the Spanish Court Hotel to visit Kingston, Jamaica’s unexplored capital of music, food and culture. We’ve been bringing you our observations on all this up-and-coming city has to offer. Though the trip was paid, all opinions remain our own. You can read our previous “Big up Kingston” posts HERE.